Good Night Sign Man

[G-Fafif]

Karl Ehrhardt, 1924-2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/09/sports/09ehrhardt.html

[Guest themetfairy]

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

There are no words.

[G-Fafif]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: There are no words.

GMTA...

http://faithandfear.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/2/9/3513705.html

[Benjamin Grimm]

[metirish]

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[Guest KC]

From the 1970 Mets Yearbook:

[Guest AG/DC]

[MFS62]

.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

[Guest mario25]

RIP SIGN MAN.....YOUR MEMORY LIVES ON

[RealityChuck]

RIP. He was as much a part of the '69 team as any of the players.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

"On Oct. 16, 1969, when left fielder Cleon Jones caught the final out of the World Series, a choked-up Sign Man held up, �There Are No Words.� '












I wonder what happened to all the signs. When the team opens the musuem in Citi Field, I hope there are some that can be displayed.

I hope the team does something to mark his passing this season. Not a patch or armband or anything like that. But a moment of silence would be nice.

[Frayed Knot]

Ehrhardt had a falling out with the club at some point over some matter or another. They later made up at least to some extent (or the offending persons in his mind left) but I'm not sure where the 'relationship' was in recent years.
At minimum some photos in the new place acknowledging him in whatever area they set aside for NYM history/HoF (assuming they still have room after building their Jackie R shrines).

[Farmer Ted]

A sad day.

[smg58]

[nymr83]

metsguyinmichigan wrote: I hope the team does something to mark his passing this season. Not a patch or armband or anything like that. But a moment of silence would be nice.

how about hanging some of his better known signs somewhere visible in the park?

[soupcan]

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: Ehrhardt had a falling out with the club at some point over some matter or another. They later made up at least to some extent (or the offending persons in his mind left) but I'm not sure where the 'relationship' was in recent years. At minimum some photos in the new place acknowledging him in whatever area they set aside for NYM history/HoF (assuming they still have room after building their Jackie R shrines).

IIRC, one year the Mets had a ceremony to honor their "best 25 fans".
Ehrhardt was amazingly left off the list. I can't say I blame him for being angry. I was outraged when I found out he wasn't on that list, as were many Mets fans when the list was announced.

Later

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'm gonna come out and say right now that couldn't possibly be the genesis of their disagreement.

[Guest AG/DC]

I think they had a cozy relationship that exempted him from ticket hikes every year, and that policy ended around 1983 when a seat at Shea suddenly had a value again. I think he just got priced out of the Davey Johnson era.

[stevejrogers]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I'm gonna come out and say right now that couldn't possibly be the genesis of their disagreement.

Not only that, does anyone here even remember such a thing? I have scores of official Met publications going back to the sixties and I don't see any mention of such a thing.

Besides, how would something like that work? Were Met Loving Big Shots also considered? Not to mention who was to say that the guy who sat in Mezz 23, Row F Seat 4 was a better fan than the guy on Field Box 45 Row A Seat 1?

I have seen that story posted here before though, not sure if it was also posted by MFS62 but the point was that Ehrhardt was on the ballot but enough people ended up not voting for him because they felt EVERYONE ELSE would be voting for him, so he ended up not making the cut.

[Guest KC]

From a 2006 NYT article about him:

By 1981, Ehrhardt began noticing signs of changing times. He said that the Mets, who had become a laughingstock, were no longer inviting him to team functions.

"The front office was now run by new ownership, and they didn't like me criticizing the team," he said. "They turned their backs on me, so I just packed up my signs and went home."

[Guest themetfairy]

I find it interesting that Greg broke this story (both here and on FAFIF) a full day before the Mets mentioned it on their website.

I wonder whether the official website took its cue from the blogosphere on this one.

[Guest KC]

Or they don't read the New York Times as early as we do here.

[DocTee]

I wonder what his epitaph will be.

[Frayed Knot]

DocTee wrote: I wonder what his epitaph will be.

'Signing Off'

[G-Fafif]

SNY's SportsNite did a full slate of baseball stories Saturday and unless I missed it at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the broadcast, did not mention the Sign Man at all. WTF? It's a Saturday in February. No disrespect to basketball or hockey (or yet another recap of the Super Bowl played six days earlier), but you couldn't find 30 seconds for Karl Ehrhardt? You're SportsNet NEW YORK, and this was a true New York sports icon. Throw in "Mets Weekly" having done a profile on the man in 2006 and you've got it on file. This was big enough for Bruce Beck to cover on Channel 4, for goodness sake. The Mets' network dropped the ball (or the sign) on this one.

[Guest AG/DC]

But I bet you're not surprised.

[Guest KC]

I'll be painted forum curmudgeon again, but I thought we'd moved on from
caring what metsdotcom or SNY does.